There were lots of questions after seminar last Thursday, most of them asked by graphic designers with intrigued and excited looks on their faces. Fielding the questions was Jan Lorenc of Lorenc+Yoo Design, an environmental communication design firm based out of Roswell, GA. Environmental design encompasses everything from signage, sculpture and retail space, to furniture and exhibit design.
Here at Portfolio Center, our students come from many different backgrounds. Some of us have degrees in Art, but others have degrees in Business, Psychology, Math, and even Architecture. We embody a variety of mindsets but are all driven to do the same thing - communicate through all things visual and written. Learning the ways we can communicate our ideas outside of print alone is something that is very new to some of us, while others (those architecture kids) sat back with a renewed appreciation for all they had learned in undergrad.
At Lorenc+Yoo, Industrial design, Interior Design, Architecture, and Graphic Design all converge and work together to create each of the environments the firm works on. Lorenc wears many hats and focuses on the "big picture," while his partner, Chung Youl Yoo, handles the details. When asked about the role of graphic designers in his firm, Lorenc responds, “They do everything."
Seeing so many examples of the opportunities to express our creativity and visions outside of just printed material is very exciting. It reinforces the philosophy that has been hammered into us here since day one—design is all about the idea, the story, the thought behind each solution, and creatively solving problems. We know the world is not flat, but sometimes we need to be reminded that graphic design doesn't have to be either.
Jan was kind enough to answer a few more questions once the crowd dispersed:
Generally speaking, we graphic design students feel that our creativity is limited to what can be spit out of our Epson printers, and even though as students at Portfolio Center we are encouraged to explore many different kinds of media - we tend to fall into the same mindset of classifying ourselves "graphic designers" instead of, more simply, "designers." Since all types of design converge at some point or another - how can we as "graphic design students" be more aware of our potential to influence more than just graphics?
My way was to be aware of all environments and dissect their pieces; immerse yourself in design books on exhibition design, retail design, trade show design; look at web sites for design firms that do environments. Pentagram is the quintessential firm that has been an inspiration for me for many years. Ralph Applebaum and Associates in NYC is a great inspiration for narrative history and natural history museums. Expose yourself to looking at the environs from a different vista. Go to Georgia Tech College of Architecture and see if there is a crit in place to see how they mold spaces and how people perceive spatial experiences.
If you weren't a designer, what would you be doing?
Considering my humble beginnings in a village in southeastern Poland, I could be throwing rocks at goats. Or I could be a shepherd. As a child, I didn't have much to choose from, unless I wanted to be a Communist. Thank God I was able to come to this great country and follow my passion. These humble connections have inspired me to turn away from my modernist education and enrich it through texture and color. I can't imagine doing anything other than what I'm doing now.
Who or what inspires you?
People who create the true culture of a place and make it what it is. This is why our visitors' center for Wycliffe Bible Translators—an international missionary organization—was so exciting. We learned about their work and told their story through graphic content supplemented with ordinary construction materials, including those commonly used in the developing world where many of their missions take place. We introduced textures, colors and ethnic textiles to anchor the organizations humble message.
You've said that your design process involves storytelling. How so?
Our approach looks at the company or environment and strives to incorporate the richness of its culture and context. The site plan, the landscape, the lighting, the building, the interiors, everything down to the micro level is thought through as a unified message. We mold the environment around the client, starting with the experience. We do this by knowing each client's business and personality intimately.
For example?
With the Georgia-Pacific exhibit, our primary mission was to understand the company history, legacy, and future. We immersed ourselves in their product line and were then able to take their overall repositioning story, add some lightness to it, and tell this in a synaptic fashion through the exhibit space. The purpose of the Georgia-Pacific exhibit was to introduce everyone from the internal sales staff to company trainees to Wall Street analysts to the company. We designed the exhibit—which consists of separate pieces dispersed throughout the divisional headquarters in Atlanta and Denver—as a 3D brief. Each piece educated visitors on everything from product offerings to company history. It provided a "cheat sheet" for people who want to learn about the company.
Do you have any specific words that you would say to graphic design students that might encourage us to think more 3-dimensionally from the beginning of our education?
Look at the world around you and see how the ones that are most pleasing to you are put together, and judge for yourself why you react in a positive way to the environment. Is it the interiors? Is it the lighting, the art, the graphics. Or is it all of it, seamlessly put together. The 3D world is multi-sensory and not on a flat plane; it's more than packaging, it's surrounding your being in the space.
Portfolio Center students share a strong desire to communicate ideas, the willingness to let go of preconceived notions, and the compulsion to learn new ways of thinking. These qualities are fostered by the school’s constant stream of industry bigwigs, who bring their varied and colorful perspectives from all over the country. These creatives, who are always generous with their time and energy, tend to hang out with students, conducting informal workshops and continuing the day’s discussions over dinner. Often, what results are provocative interviews—written, shot, and designed by PC students.
